What is an American

There are times we read and saved an article but failed to credit its author or where it was originally published. I don't recall when this was published or where but it is attributed to an Australian dentist. He or she wrote the piece after allegedly reading a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

Whether this is fact or fiction I can't say. But, I most certainly can say I agree with the content this person penned. And, if we all remembered this the divisiveness our nation faces today just possibly could melt into unity. Judge for yourself.

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German,Spanish,Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navajo, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or they could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. 

The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness. 

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet Army in 1979, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, 2001, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. 

Americans welcome the best. The best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest  tossed. These in fact are the people who built America. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11th  earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the last 200 years of history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.